Tag: Interviews with Writers

CHARLES YU is the author of three books, including the novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, which was a New York Times Notable Book and named one of the best books of the year by Time magazine. He was nominated for two WGA awards for his work on HBO’s Westworld and has also written for an

What is it about the genre or cross-genre you write in that interests you/draws you in? I’m drawn to forms animated by what Viktor Shklovsky called ostranenie, or “making strange”—sometimes translated as “estrangement” or “defamiliarization.” Otherwise we are lulled to stupor and blindness by familiar narratives, gestures, humors, small talk, breakfast cereals…

What is it about the genre or cross-genre you write in that interests you/draws you in? I think there’s a sort of connection to the kinds of stories I write now and the fantasy romps I threw together when I was a teenager. I didn’t really become a reader until I started college. Poetry was

What is it about the genre or cross-genre you write in that interests you/draws you in? I read more fiction than nonfiction. Having said that, I think people, all of us, are odd and intriguing, and in my everyday life, I can’t help but try to coax stories out of the people I talk to.

What is it about the genre or cross-genre you write in that interests you/draws you in? As a writer, I prefer creative nonfiction because I simply lack the creativity to make up a good readable story. All of my attempts at fiction have been thinly-veiled nonfiction with a few changes, and it was exciting to